1, It wasn't a close game, it seemed this way only because they dropped deep for the last 15 minutes after yaya converted a very unlikely chance. You keep talking about "we should have been leading", but the DeBruyne chance wasn't anything like clear cut. The angle was very tight, and the pass wasn't on either. So to keep suggesting you should have been leading by the time they grabbed their goal is very generous.
2, They didn't shut up shop after their first goal which i concede was a punt(like yaya's), they kept coming forward, and scored again. Only when they got the 2nd did they truly shut up shop, as anyone would against another top 4 side....so yes they DID execute their plan, maybe not well gievn they missed so many chances to score on the break, but it got the job done.
3, I have, in every single post mentioned that arsenal were average, yet you keep talking as if this has gone over your head. The point is city were far worse over 90 mins and had no plan as always, aside from playing delph on the left which resulted in that infamous pass which ono posted a picture of, and a sterling sub at half time.
4, You keep associating a battering with men vs boys, yet i can tell you dozens of games in recent years where its been men vs boys without the battering to reflect this fact.
5, re "certainly not now and certainly not panic buy in january". No i wouldn't want another bony, but do YOU want an UCL place? Its simply so far off the pace at present that you cannot just sit there and assume you will safely qualify without measures being taken. I can guarantee you that abromovic is currently wishing he'd given jose the boot earlier now, as their top 4 place is pretty much done and dusted. Plus, you either need to bring in a defender or call Denayer back from loan, and really you need a striker. I'd say CM too but that is a difficult area to cover in january, given its arguably the area where the most money is needed to be spent.
6, A decent clear cut chance wouldn't have been created last night if the game went on for 200mins...
1. You say it wasn't close, yet I'm sure you mentioned we were the better team for the first 30 minutes + the last 15 so that's 45 minutes of us being the better team and 45 minutes of them - yes their 45 minutes was more significant hence they won, but I just don't see how you can claim we were so thoroughly outplayed (i.e. we were so dreadful we should have lost 4-5 nil), they won because they were tactically better and were more clinical, not because they played so much better than us.
2. Kept coming forward? Unless I'm mistaken they had 2 shots in the first half (I'm almost certain on this fact). They put together 2 decent attacks (in fact that's generous, they weren't attacking, we passed it to them for the 2nd, so one decent attack) and scored twice, so you must see my confusion about where you saw them creating so much trouble for us? After that it's natural they created a couple more chances when we're chasing a game 2-0 down - any team would.
3.
Your point is
you think City were far worse,
my point is that I think we were
slightly worse - these are opinions not facts. We agree on the second point though, our plan was non-existent/poor and contributed to the loss.
4. Men vs Boys for me is when it's very one sided in a certain department, if you're talking on the pitch, then like I said no chance, if we were boys they were teenagers at best. If you're talking tactics then like I said that's Wenger vs Pellegrini & I'm closer to sharing your opinion.
5. Do you really think we're off pace for CL spot? We're playing as bad as I've seen us for years, with crippling injuries to key players for almost the entirety of the season, and we're in 3rd. It's quite simply a fact that we are in the CL spot currently, and if the second half of the season repeated we would end up in the CL. Do you think we'll be worse in the second half? Personally cannot see it, with Kompany, Aguero & Silva back even if we're a mess tactically we should have enough (easily) to get top 4 & even challenge for 1st/2nd IMO. Don't get me wrong I think other teams will do better 2nd half, but I certainly think we will too.
6. I guess we'll agree to disagree about KdB chance, for me he scores that 8/10 times, which I'd call clear cut - even could have squared for Silva if he'd chosen to pass early for a 10/10 tap in. Yaya also missed a chance from a few yards out near the end at 2-1 (hit wide) - again I'd argue that was fairly clear cut even if he's under pressure. Again we'll have to agree to disagree because they looked shaky at the back & we looked like we had an equaliser in us if we'd scored 10 minutes earlier.
Well, think it's clear we're at different ends of the spectrum on that performance, for me it was more promising that if we can compete away at Arsenal (although still not good), that we can have a mediocre season & refresh in the summer. You obviously saw it as more worrying. Clearly we're not going to change each others opinions so I'll leave it there though.
